Bible Commentaries

JEREMIAH 51

PROPHECY AGAINST BABYLON (continued)

(The introduction for Jeremiah 50 also applies to this chapter.)

Jeremiah 51:1-5

"Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroying wind. And I will send unto Babylon strangers, that shall winnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. Against him that bendeth, let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host. And they shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets. For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel."

"Them that dwell in Leb-kamai ..." (Jeremiah 51:1). The proper name here is a kind of trick word called an athbash, devised by numbering the Hebrew alphabet from each end (for example, in English X, Y, Z, would be numbered 3,2, 1, etc.; and A, B, C, would be numbered 1,2, 3, etc. Thus, to form an athbash, the letters of a name would be changed. The letter "A" would be written "Z," and the letter "B" would be written "Y," etc.). Leb-kamai here is an athbash for "Chaldea."¹

No one knows why such a device was used here. It was usually a device for concealing the meaning of a word from all except those "in the know"; but the equivalent of Chaldea, "Babylon," has already been mentioned. We encountered another example of this in Jeremiah 25:26.

Barnes believed that this word for Chaldea, Leb-kamai, was probably "known to everybody";² and, if so, it could have been a kind of nickname for Babylonia, such as "Gotham" or "The Big Apple."

"A destroying wind ..." (Jeremiah 51:1). Keil noted that this should be translated, "The spirit of a destroyer."³ That rendition is most likely correct, because it was not a "wind" that mined Babylon; it was a human destroyer, Cyrus. In Hebrew, the word for "wind" and "spirit" is the same.

"Strangers ... they shall winnow her ..." (Jeremiah 51:2). "These were the Medes (Jeremiah 51:11) who would destroy Babylon."⁴ The word "winnow" was a word connected with the threshing industry; and one still hears remarks like, "He gave him a threshing!"

"For Israel ... Judah ... is not forsaken of his God ..." (Jeremiah 51:5). Throughout this chapter, the destruction of Babylon, and the protection and blessing of Israel are mentioned in that order repeatedly.

"Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be not cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Jehovah's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense. Babylon hath been a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed; wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness: come, let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God."

The analogy between the literal Babylon here and the spiritual Babylon of Revelation is amazing. Note the following: (1) Both shall be utterly destroyed (2) God's people are commanded to "come out of her." (3) She has a golden cup in her hand. (4) The nations have become drunk with her wine. (5) Her judgment reaches all the way to heaven. (6) Her doom is like a stone cast into the river (see last paragraph of this chapter). (7) She is responsible for all the slain in the land (Jeremiah 51:49). See Vol. 12 (Revelation) in the New Testament commentaries (Revelation 17-18).

"Babylon is suddenly fallen ..." (Jeremiah 51:8), It happened in a single night, the tragic night dramatically described in the fifth chapter of Daniel.

"She is not healed ..." (Jeremiah 51:9). "Israel's wounds could be healed by balm from Gilead, but Babylon's fate was absolute."⁵

"Babylon hath been a golden cup ..." (Jeremiah 51:7). Not only that; she was called "God's hammer" in Jeremiah 50:23. "As God's hammer, she was strong; as his cup of gold, she was rich and beautiful; but nothing could save her from the wrath of God as recompense for her sin."⁶

"Make sharp the arrows, hold forth the shields: Jehovah hath stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple. Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both purposed and done that which he spake concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of thy covetousness. Jehovah of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with the canker-worm; and they shall lift up a shout against thee."

"O thou that dwellest upon many waters ..." (Jeremiah 51:13). "The great wealth of Babylon was caused not merely by the Euphrates, but by a vast system of canals, which served for defense as well as for irrigation."⁷ Harrison thought that there might be, "A sarcastic reference here to the mythological tale of the Babylonians concerning a great subterranean ocean";⁸ but we believe that the obvious reference to the canals of the Euphrates is a far better interpretation.

"The measure of thy covetousness ..." (Jeremiah 51:13). "This is a metaphor taken from weaving; it compares Babylon to a measure of cloth cut out of the loom, which is a figure for death."⁹; Isaiah 38:12 has the same metaphor.

"As with the canker-worm" (Jeremiah 51:14). The canker-worm was a very destructive insect. "It was the locust in the chrysalis stage, the most destructive phase of the locust's life."¹⁰ This creature was the source of many of the worst plagues that ever came upon the people of the Near East. The promise here was that God would fill Babylon with men who would do the same thing to Babylon that the horrible locust plague would do to a field of grain.

"He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens. When he utters his voice, there is a tumult in the waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries. Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name."

These verses, with the exception of a single word are a verbatim repetition of Jeremiah 10:12-16. See my comment on these verses under that reference.

"Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: and with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and him that rideth therein; and with thee will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin; and with thee will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces governors and deputies. And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight saith Jehovah. Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith Jehovah, which destroyeth all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith Jehovah."

No comment is necessary on Jeremiah 51:20-24, which are merely a somewhat tedious way of saying that God will break in pieces just about everything that pertained to Babylon.

"O destroying mountain ..." (Jeremiah 51:25). Keil uses several pages talking about a volcano here; but we believe Robinson was correct when he said, "The language here is purely figurative."¹¹ Why did the Lord choose such a metaphor? It could be because of that false mountain called the "Tower of Babel" that had been erected there in the remote past, or because of that Ziggurat, the mountain-like temple of Babylon's pagan religious system. God would roll the whole nation down the multiple terraces of their false mountain.

"Thou shalt be desolate forever, saith Jehovah ..." (Jeremiah 51:26). Thompson complained that, "Cyrus entered Babylon without any appreciable resistance and left the city intact; and this is quite contrary to the description of devastation that appears in Jeremiah 51:26."¹² There are other phases of these prophecies against Babylon that indicate quite clearly that there would be a long period during which Babylon would be the "hindermost" of nations, and that the total desolation promised would be accomplished gradually, but that it would last forever. All of this took place exactly as prophesied. See further comment on this in the previous chapter in the discussion under Jeremiah 51:11-16.

"Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horse to come up as the rough canker-worm. Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, and all the deputies thereof, and all the land of their dominion. And the land trembleth and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might hath failed; they are become as women: her dwelling places are set on fire; her bars are broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter: and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her."

"Ararat ..." (Jeremiah 51:27). "This is an ancient name for part of Armenia, including the mountains where the ark rested. It was where the sons of Sennacherib went after they murdered him; and Jeremiah mentioned it here, along with the neighboring districts of Mini and Ashkenaz."¹³

"Ashkenaz ..." (Jeremiah 51:27). "These people were the ancient equivalent of barbarians. Their neighbors were Ararat and Minni. They were located southeast of Lake Van."¹⁴

"Minni ..." (Jeremiah 51:27). "This is the same as Mannai of the Assyrian inscriptions. They were located in the vicinity of the lakes Van and Urmia and seem to have been a very capable people in warfare. They aided the destruction of Nineveh (612 B.C.) and also participated in the capture of Babylon in 539 B.C.)."¹⁵ They were vassals of Babylon in the fall of Nineveh, and of the Medes in the fall of Babylon.

"The rough canker-worm ..." (Jeremiah 51:27). This was the name of the locust in its most devastating phase. See under Jeremiah 51:14, above.

"One post shall run to meet another ... one messenger to meet another ..." (Jeremiah 51:31). The famed courier system of Babylon brought the drunken king (Daniel 5) the news of the city's capture "from every quarter."

"The men of war were affrighted ..." (Jeremiah 51:32). This is no wonder. The enemy were all over the city in total control of it; they had already burned the marshes, destroying any place of hiding or of ambush; the king was hopelessly drunk; and the mighty Babylon was as helpless as a woman untrained in war, with no protection, no armor, no weapons, and no hope. Let it be remembered, however, that this was a prophecy of "what would happen," not a history of what did happen. The prophecy was so accurate, however, that some have mistaken it for history. The mention of the Medes and their allies both here and in Jeremiah 51:11 are all the proof that is needed that here we have predictive prophecy, not history. No writer, writing afterward would have mentioned the Medes without bringing in the Persians.

"Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come for her ..." (Jeremiah 51:33). Note the future verb. We have prophecy, not history. Also, the focus upon Israel here, along with the mention of the fall of Babylon follows the pattern already mentioned, namely, (1) the fall of Babylon, followed by (2) the God of Israel's care for his children.

"Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath like a monster swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he hath cast me out. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant. They shall roar together like young lions; thy shall growl as lions' whelps. When they are heated I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith Jehovah. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats."

Harrison's summary of this paragraph has this:

"Nebuchadnezzar has devoured Jerusalem with the greedy gulp of a monster (the New English Bible has "dragon"), and for this excess his land shall be punished. The idiom of recompense (Jeremiah 51:35) is that of Genesis 16:5)."¹⁶

"I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry ..." (Jeremiah 51:36). This writer cannot believe that Almighty God would dignify the mythological tale of a vast underground ocean by here promising to dry it up. Could God dry up something that never existed? Therefore, we reject the notion that, "This is a reference to the mythological wellsprings of life."¹⁷ The Euphrates and its system of canals were the wellsprings of life for Babylon, not some mythological underground sea. See under Jeremiah 51:13, above. Smith supposed that there might also be a reference here to, "The great lake dug by Nitocris to receive the waters of the Euphrates."¹⁸

"Like a monster ..." (Jeremiah 51:34). See my comment on Isaiah 27:1 regarding the monster mentioned there.

"How is Sheshak taken and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. And I will execute judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more unto him: yea the wall of Babylon shall fall."

"How is Sheshak taken ..." (Jeremiah 51:41). This is an ashbash for Babylon. See under Jeremiah 51:1, above, and under Jeremiah 25:26.

"The sea is come up upon Babylon ..." (Jeremiah 51:42). This is a metaphor for the destroying army, composed of many nations under the lordship of Cyrus.

"I will bring forth out of his mouth ..." (Jeremiah 51:44). This reveals the true identity of the one who swallowed up Jerusalem. It was not a sea-monster at all, but Babylon, because Babylon was the one that God forced to disgorge himself of that which he had swallowed.

Jeremiah 51:41-43 here are the same as Jeremiah 6:22-24. See my comments there.

"My people, Go ye out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Jehovah, and let not your heart faint, neither fear ye for the tidings that shall be found in the land; for tidings shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come tidings, and violence is in the land, ruler against ruler. Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. Thus the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers shall come unto her from the north, saith Jehovah. As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land."

"All her slain shall fall in the midst of her ..." (Jeremiah 51:47). Harrison noted that this passage will bear the translation: "Just as the whole earth's slain have fallen for Babylon, so at Babylon the whole earth's slain shall fall."¹⁹ Certainly this idea must be in the passage, because of what God said through the apostle John.

"And in her (Mystery Babylon, the Great Harlot) was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth" (Revelation 18:24).

Jeremiah 51:44-46 are taken from Jeremiah 49:19-21. See my comments there.

"Ye that have escaped the sword, go ye, stand not still; remember Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our faces: for strongers have come into the sanctuary of Jehovah's house. Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will execute judgment upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall the destroyers come upon her saith Jehovah."

"Go ye, stand not still ..." (Jeremiah 51:50). See under Jeremiah 51:6, above for comment on this.

"We are confounded ..." (Jeremiah 51:51). God's people appear to be the speakers here. God's thundering reply came in the next verse.

"Fortify the height of her strength ..." (Jeremiah 51:53). This may be either a reference to their famed Ziggurat, or to their high wall that surrounded the 200 square mile interior of the city. Speaking of the great wall, Smith has given us various estimates of its height.

"There is in this an allusion to the vast height of the walls of Babylon, though their actual measurement is very uncertain. Herodotus gave the height as 335 English feet, Pliny 235, Q. Curtius 150, and Strabo 75!"²⁰

Incidentally, the above named historians regarding the walls of Babylon are among that company of pagan writers sometimes quoted by radical critics as "authorities" in remarks that are alleged to cast doubt upon or to deny something in the Bible. Can one intelligently suppose that the whole crowd of ancient writers were any more reliable than the sacred writers of the Holy Bible?

"The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! For Jehovah layeth Babylon waste, and destroyeth out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered: for the destroyer is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Jehovah is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite. And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary."

"They shall sleep ... saith the King ..." (Jeremiah 51:57). Right in the midst of all the records regarding ancient kings, governors, deputies, etc., the real KING is introduced. He is Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel.

"The broad walls of Babylon ..." (Jeremiah 51:58). Once more, we shall allow the ancient pagan authorities to tell us about those broad walls. "Herodotus gave their breadth as 85 feet, Strabo and Curtius agreed that they were 31 feet";²¹ and Donald Wiseman found some pagan authority who gave the width as 25 feet!²² One ancient writer tells us that four chariots could be raced abreast upon the top of Babylon's walls.

"The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief chamberlain. And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, then see that thou read all these words, and say, O Jehovah, thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever. And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah."

"Seraiah... the chamberlain ..." (Jeremiah 51:59). This man was a brother of Baruch; and his being called the chamberlain indicates that he had charge of such things as accommodations and travel arrangements when Zedekiah made that trip to Babylon in the fourth year of his tenure as vassal king under Nebuchadnezzar, "in 593 B.C."²³

"Jeremiah gave Seraiah a scroll upon which was written a prophecy against Babylon."²⁴ This comment is incorrect, because the scroll had not "a prophecy" against Babylon, but, it had all that Jeremiah said, "even all these words" (Jeremiah 51:60). This proves that all the prophecies of Jeremiah against Babylon came early in the reign of Zedekiah (593 B.C.). Jeremiah wrote many other prophecies after that date, but all the prophecies against Babylon were concluded before the event mentioned in this paragraph. "There is no valid reason for questioning either the act recorded here or the account of it. It is dated in the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah (594-593 B.C.).²⁵

As he did in Jeremiah 18:1-17 when he visited the house of the potter, and again in Jeremiah 32:6-15 when he bought a field, Jeremiah here reinforced his prophecy against Babylon by a symbolical action carried out for him by Seriah who read the prophecies first (publicly) and then tied a stone to the scroll and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates.

The importance of this action is seen in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 18:21), where a similar action by a mighty angel of God symbolized the overthrow and destruction of Mystery Babylon the Great.

With regard to that trip which Zedekiah made to Babylon on that occasion in his fourth year as king, Smith sheds some light.

"Zedekiah made that trip possibly with the hope of receiving some favor from Nebuchadnezzar, or because Nebuchadnezzar summoned him to be present for some state occasion; and it is even possible that Nebuchadnezzar suspected the loyalty of Zedekiah and demanded that he appear in Babylon with an explanation of why the ambassadors that year (Jeremiah 27:3) were assembled in Jerusalem from Moab, Ammon, Edom and Phoenicia."²⁶

"Thus far the words of Jeremiah ..." (Jeremiah 51:64). This is called a Colophon,²⁷ an editorial note probably inserted by the scribe who connected Jeremiah 52 to Jeremiah as an historical appendix. Very frequently in our Bible studies, we encounter allegations that editors, redactors, and interpolators have added this or that; but here we really have such an example; and let it be noted, that the addition is clearly distinguished from the words of the author. "Whoever it was that added Jeremiah 52 evidently felt that it was his duty to point out that it was not written by Jeremiah. It is an instance of the scrupulous care the Jews took in guarding the integrity of their sacred books, which God committed to their keeping."²⁸

The fact of this comment's appearance here demonstrates that the postulation widely accepted by radical critics that all kinds of comments and additions were added to the original writings of the prophets is simply false. The attitude of the nameless scribe who wrote the final sentence of Jeremiah 51:64 effectively disproves it.